A reporter from the New York Daily News called to ask me about some things that former yoga instructor Rielle Hunter had said, about former Democratic politician John Edwards being "an old soul" with a "special energy" who could be a truly "transformational leader" if only he would use his heart more and his head less; and about her purpose on this Earth being "to help raise awareness about all this, to help the unenlightened become better reflections of their true, repressed selves." The reporter wanted to know what this meant — what becoming a better reflection of one's true repressed self would amount to, in precise terms. Doesn't it suggest that one's real self is trapped inside, he asked, and one's apparently real self that walks around among us, and eats breakfast, and experiences temptations regarding sexual relations with blonde videographers, is merely a reflection of that inner reality? Is this not, he went on (having apparently majored in philosophy at Columbia), a remarkable inversion of the way language is normally employed by philosophers talking about the self? Has Ms Hunter not got the outside inside and the inside outside?

What becoming a better reflection of one's true repressed self would amount to....

But there really is a linguistics question there! It's about screwing up the meaning by putting the adjectives "true" and "repressed" together. I think Language Log was manifesting some repression about sex and therefore failing to get to its true interest in linguistic. But it was nevertheless very funny, which is always good.

"And aren't they all doing the same: only containing themselves,if to contain oneself means: to transform the world outsideand wind and rain and patience of springand guilt and restlessness and disguised fateand darkness of earth at eveningall the way to the errancy, flight, and coming on of cloudsall the way to the vague influence of the distant starsinto a handful of inwardness.

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.""That's some catch, that catch-22," he observed."It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

I've known too many Rielles, I think, and this weekend got stuck in a l-o-o-o-o-n-g conversation with someone who talks just like her (at least as represented by that reporter). So maybe I'm just suffering from an allergic reaction due to overexposure.

I've been oversaturated, too, reader, but I've done pretty well over the years in shutting down those conversations. I've found saying "Thanks but I'm very comfortable with my own faith" works pretty well.

The worst distortion of language, the one that grates, is with the word 'enlightened.' It's arrogant. It suggests all youz out there who mock my aura-reading ability are unenlightened. It's a way stupid people found to call everybody else stupid. Enlightenment is ever associated with the dumbest ideas. Yet, with this woman it worked. Worked like a, like a ... charm.

ching

waft of pachouli.

sound of sitar

And behind all that, there we are. And behind us observing us looking at all that, there we are. This could take some time. Behind the observer of the detached observer observing the watcher absorbed in the activities is the true self observing and absorbing it all struggling to express through the mantles of identity that ... Damn! There went my bus.